Boxee Scores $16.5M Investment

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Boxee Scores $16.5M Investment

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday March 1, 2011 @06:47AM from the take-the-money-and-run dept.

DeviceGuru writes "Boxee, maker of the free Boxee multimedia-player software platform for PCs and Macs, and the smarts behind D-Link's recently introduced Boxee Box, has just received $16.5 million more funding. Following several significant firmware updates and the addition of new apps for Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and other content sources, all pushed automatically out to users' devices, the $199 D-Link Boxee Box is finally stating to feel more like a finished product than a beta-test device. What's next for Boxee? The D-Link device will soon be joined by two more Boxee-powered devices: a Boxee NAS device from Iomega and a ViewSonic TV running Boxee, and one of the main uses of the company's new funding will be to 'sign up more device and distribution partners,' says Boxee CEO Avner Ronen."

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Only good in the USA... by CohibaVancouver · 2011-03-01 06:58 · Score: 4, Informative

My buddy bought his wife a Boxee Box as a present last Christmas. On Boxing Day they returned it. Why? Here in Canada, most of the content is unavailable due to region blocking. They should stop selling the thing here in America's hat if you can't use it to its fullest potential.
1. Re:Only good in the USA... by squidflakes · 2011-03-01 07:17 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Careful mate, returning a Boxee Box on Boxing Day is one step away from creating a linguistic tesseract.
2. Re:Only good in the USA... by pavon · 2011-03-01 07:51 · Score: 2
  
  Think of the poor stocker. How many Boxee boxes did he have to rebox on boxing day?
Re:How the heck do I attach to my TV? by eric_brissette · 2011-03-01 07:09 · Score: 3, Funny

Yeah, it sure is awful trying to hook up blu-ray players, video game consoles, and these new-fangled internet devices to my 1982 Zenith television.
Luckily, Amazon still sells those 75-to-300 ohm adapters with the forks on the end that you have to screw down.
Re:How the heck do I attach to my TV? by commodore6502 · 2011-03-01 07:34 · Score: 2, Insightful

>>>Yeah, it sure is awful trying to hook up blu-ray players, video game consoles, and these new-fangled internet devices to my [2008] Zenith television.
Fixed that for you.
It is ridiculous that engineers think anything three years old is too old to support. On the other hand: Maybe it's marketers desiring to obsolete perfectly working TVs, in order to sell more shit.

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Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
Re:or... by Swervin · 2011-03-01 07:37 · Score: 2

I own a Boxee Box. I have no problem adding local sources, and use it to play DVD .iso images from a shared drive on my Windows 7 desktop.
My Review. by NoPantsJim · 2011-03-01 07:49 · Score: 2

I actually held back.

Anyone on SlashDot is twice as intelligent as necessary to setup an XBMC install that would blow Boxee out of the water. I bought three Boxee Boxes and sent all three back, don't regret it for a second.

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Name...That...Autocomplete!
1. Re:My Review. by NoPantsJim · 2011-03-01 08:39 · Score: 2
  
  My father still owns one, and I've been over to his place to see it as recently as two weeks ago. I upgraded to the DroboPro FS and gave him my old Drobo FS. It is just as abysmal product compared to XBMC as it was in November.
  
  And when the hell did it become totally acceptable to release a shitty product with the promise that it would become "okay" later on?
  
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  Name...That...Autocomplete!
2. Re:My Review. by blahbooboo · 2011-03-01 10:34 · Score: 2
  
  Ok, serious question here; has the intelligence level of Slashdot dropped sharply since last I came around? You're right though, the Boxee tagging system is completely foolproof.
  I installed both XBMC and Boxee on the same exact HTPC. Boxee (as early as the Alpha version) worked within 1 minute after going to settings and pointing it at my data folder the software started scraping. As for your example, I had that happen to me once with a video. Not a big deal compared to the thousands of other videos Boxee properly identified. BTW your error in Boxee scrapping was not in the suggested format of title.year so perhaps that was the problem with the identification or it wasn't the latest Boxee release?
  Could I have eventually figured out how to get XBMC to work? Sure. Are there still a few quirks with Boxee? Yes! But why would I want to spend time figuring out XBMC obscure organization and interface (IMHO) as opposed to watching videos? Perhaps you want to waste time on this sort of stuff or maybe out of the box XBMC just worked for you. For me I just want to watch a video on my HTPC and not futz with a computer.
  Lastly, there is really no need to insult someone who doesn't agree with you. I am just giving you my experience using XBMC. If you work on XBMC perhaps you should listen to a users real world experience rather than play blame the user.
Re:How the heck do I attach to my TV? by Jeng · 2011-03-01 08:12 · Score: 2

The one that makes sense is that there are options out there.
There is competition, and some of that competition has the connectors he needs. That means that basically Boxee has excluded everyone without HDMI from their customer base, while Boxee's competitors have not.
Which do you think is the better option? To limit yourself to a single output method and limit your customer base, or give options and open up your customer base?
It's not like TV's only have one input type.

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Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Shape by fahrbot-bot · 2011-03-01 08:13 · Score: 2

From one of TFA:

The unusually shaped box measures 4.7-inches on a side ... It was designed by Astro Studios, which counts among its past accomplishments Microsoft’s stylish Xbox 360+.

Ya, thanks for making it un-stackable - horiz or vert. (sigh)

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It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Re:How the heck do I attach to my TV? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-03-01 08:23 · Score: 3, Insightful

Seriously, you bought an analog TV in 2008? One year before the total analog shutoff (2009?)
And you blame others for not supporting you?
Re:or... by eldepeche · 2011-03-01 09:42 · Score: 2

I heard the Boxee box was more or less a bait and switch making it impossible to add local sources.
Where the fuck did you hear that?